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Life has happened… how to best deal with "school"
- This topic has 14 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 9 months ago by
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I wasn’t quite sure which topic group to pick, but it makes sense to me!
I could use a little advice regarding how best to school through a sudden situation that has come up. On Wednesday evening we received word from our landlord that we need to be out of our current house in a month. So, we have been thrust into an excellerated time of busyness when we were already pretty busy with life. We need to find a new affordable place that is still safe, pack everything, do repairs and clean everything and probably downsize quite a bit as well.
I am organized, I know how to clean well, thouroughly and quickly, that’s all fine. I am NOT sure how to do all that and still follow our schedule for lessons and schooling. We scheduled this year as our heaviest load yet and started expecting a little more out of our kids, purposely. We are not doing horribly but because of illnesses we are a little behind in our grand plan already. I really do not want to do school all year right through summer. I find I need time in the summers to do all the things that had to be put aside during the other months. So, I don’t just want to take the whole month off and do it in the summer.
How do I go through all of these plans, books, schedules for family and also each of my 3 dc and figure out how to make this work right now? Does anyone have experience with this? Will I simply be stuck doing a month of work during the summer or just cut a bunch of planned resources out of our plan? Neither of those seems like a good option!
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!
-Miranda
Maybe stick with a light school schedule for now? So you can get some school work done, but not be overwhelmed with the amount of school work, and the amount of packing and planning that goes into a move – especially one as sudden as yours! Then you an finish up what you missed in the summer on a light schedule.
Yes, I would do a light schedule, 4 days a week. Nothing more than 2 hours worth a day. Then in the summer all you would have to catch up on is science, arts, etc. And that may be fun. Good luck with your move!
How old are your kids? We’ve been through similar situations (military moves on short notice) many, many times.
We school year round, but in the summer I plan a normal week, then spread it out over 2 weeks, so we are still getting a balanced program, but at an easier pace, leaving lots of time for fun. Perhaps something similar could work while you are packing, etc. Then you could either do the same for a month in summer, or just do 2 weeks of full schedule to catch up.
Not sure how old your children are but if they can handle some independent work then that may go a long way. Not only to accomplish your homeschool goals (no summer work) but to also train them for jr high/high school.
I usually sit each day with my son, who is 11, and we do most things together and at the end I assign him a spelling page, chapter reading and his math assignment. But I am now cleaning our church for 5 hrs on Tues and can’t sit with him. So I will bring him with me and he has to do most of his work by himself while I clean. He can ask me questions if needed. The night before I will write out his assignments, some of which I would have normally done with him (like the history reading for the day). Then after we go home I will look over what he has done, maybe ask him a question or 2 to make sure he understood his reading, and then do one or two things that we need to do together, if there is anything for that day. That way I get the cleaning done and don’t have to sacrifice his learning for the day or my homeschool schedule.
So in your case there are a few options. I was thinking that you could pick a few days a week to just do your normal school schedule and then maybe the other days just write out their assignments the night before and they can be working on them while you are packing and cleaning. If there are subjects/assignments they HAVE to do with you on those days then you could quickly do those parts either before or after your packing/cleaning or just cover those things on your normal school days. The other option is to just write their assignments out for every day (one week at a time) and then sit with them for the non-independent work when needed. So you would have 5 days to get stuff done while they are working on their schooling vs. my 1st suggestion of 2-3 days.
Plus, this would just be temporary. Once you are moved and settled you could go back to your previous schedule. I was surprised, though, how much my son enjoyed some independent work. It also helped me see that I didn’t need to do every little thing with him and that he can learn just as well on his own, which is what my goal is.
Hope that is helpful!
Maybe it is possible to keep to your homeschool plan and squeeze every ounce out of your weekends. I think we underestimate ourselves sometimes. There are times when life has us at a short sprint. When we look back at the race from the finish line we think, “Wow, look how God has strengthened us to go beyond our apparent limits.” I am reminded of the horse Bree in The Horse and His Boy when he was being chased by the Lion and suddenly found the energy of a racehorse hidden deep within. Try to see how effective you can be outside of school hours…and ask family and friends for help. May your transition time be a blessing.
I would cut down to the bare minimum. For us, that would be math, phonics, history, and Bible/scripture memory. You could read your literature book right before bedtime.
I would set school hours for the month and each day do what you can during those. Then when your time is up NO GUILT. Go get ready for moving! And I agree that if you can assign some independent work it goes a long way.
Oh, and doing this limited hours schedule I would probably do what we could on Monday then pick up where we left off on Tuesday, etc. In the end you may be behind where you wanted but you won’t be way behind like taking the month off. Also dropping subjects down to essentials may work for now, it depends on what you are comfortable with.
Thanks for the suggestions. My kids are dd10, ds 8 and dd6.
I think I am going to have to mull this over for a bit today and read over the suggestions again before I decide which option is most doable for us. Then I’ll make a plan and put in down on paper. Oh, I guess I may have to do a bunch of changes on the organizer as well to make things fit better. Hhmmm…
I agree with Tristan – I’d do the “rotating cards” method of organization (and enter stuff in the organizer as done when it gets done (instead of scheduling it.) With a limited time for school.
So rotating cards – make cards for each subject, based on how many times you would normally do it. So possibly (as an example)
Math – 5x a week, so 5 cards
Reading – 5 cards
Science – 2 cards
History – 3 cards
Copywork – 3 cards
whatever….
So then I’d look at how that is normally spaced out – basically setup the cards for each day of the week as you normally do it., then put them together. So you would have something like
Reading, Math, History, Copywork, Reading, Math, Science, Reading, Math, History, Copywork, ……..
Put them in a card box (or put together with a ring, or whatever.)
So, Monday comes…. and in your time alloted you get done Reading, and Math. GREAT! as you did it, you flipped those cards to the back of the box. So now it is Tuesday – your first card says History, so start with History. say you get it, copywork, and reading done. Those got moved back, so Wednesday you start with Math, then Science….
This way you get work done on all your subjects, so you don’t get too behind in anything, and your kids are getting a good variety. (If you have some one-on-one subjects, say math – make a card for that subject for each child for each time you would normally do it.)
– note, if your days are mostly the same, you could just make the cards for a single day’s work (maybe have a “rotation card for things that vary from day to day now) – and rotate them as above – again using a timer to limit your school time.
Oh, and if you don’t mind TV, I’d make use of educational videos while packing things that your kids can’t help with. I don’t like doing that generally, but for a season…
(btw – sorry about the need to move!)
What I do in a crazy move….my favorite was when we got orders Thursday at 4:30pm and had to be on the road Monday morning in order to get to the next base in time.
Independent work (while I’m packing/looking for houses/crying in a corner)…all of which they can do on their own, and can be packed in the car and worked on in the hotel (except piano).
Younger kids (probably your 6 and 8 yr olds):
Explode the Code workbooks (at their level)
copywork
dictation (not my littlest who is 6)
piano practice
math worksheet (to practice simple facts)
read a book…sometimes to me while I’m working, sometimes to each other, sometimes to older sibling
daily chores – to help clean the house
read scriptures
Older kids:
piano practice
daily chores
copywork – print and cursive
dictation
math practice sheet
Life of Fred – one chapter a day
read one book a week for fun
history or science reading assignments
read scriptures
As a family we spend two hours working on:
history (20 mins)
science (20 mins)
one-on-one math and reading lessons (youngest only) with mom (20 to 30 mins each x 4)
Dad reads to them at night so they’re getting some literature as well and we do family scripture study right before bed.
I cut everything else out until we’re settled in the next house. If I know we’ll be in a hotel/TLF for a while I try to find books for my Kindle OR we’ll just grab one big book and use that the whole time.
The rest of the time they can help pack, de-clutter, clean, read, play outside, watch educational movies, listen to audio books, whatever. Depending on if I need the computer or not I’ll let them play math games (Timez Attack) or reading games (Starfall, Reading Eggs, etc.).
We try to work in the morning then I have the rest of the day to do moving stuff. But we’re flexible and will change if need be.
Just wanted to say thanks to all the responders for your advice and ideas. It definatly helped me figure things out. I have a plan now, as far as what lessons to do and how and how long, etc. so, just letting you all know how helpful you were! Blessings!
-Miranda
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